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"The tooth often bites the tongue, and yet they keep together in harmony when 
work is to he done for the good of the whole body."— Banish proverb. 
"Be sure you're right, then go ahead."— Davy Crockett. 



SPEECH 



OF 



Hon. PETER J. OTEY, 

OF VIRGINIA, 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Tuesday, April 12, 1898. 



WASHINGTON. 
1898. 






■On 



68536 



5- 






SPEECH 

OF 

HON. PETER J. OTEY 



The House being- in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, ana 
having under consideration the House amendments to the bill (S. 024) to> 
authorize the Washington and Glen Echo Railroad Company to obtain a right 
of way and construct tracks into the District of Columbia bOU feet — 

Mr. OTEY said: 

Mr. Chairman: I shall endeavor to confine my remarks to tiie 
bill now before the House, as no one has referred to it so far. 
[Laughter.] And so, in considering this railroad bill, I desire to 
say that this House is practically without any detailed official 
information which in my opinion enables it at this moment to act 
promptly and discreetly, decisively and patriotically, on the Cuban 
question. [Laughter.] 

This essential information will not be given us until the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Affairs sees fit to do so. 

In the meantime, Mr. Chairman, that side of the Chamber — the 
majority of this body — will, in my opinion, do absolutely nothing. 
[Applause.] What I will do when all the facts are before us — 
what course I will pursue when we are possessed of the knowl- 
edge now in possession of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I caa 
not now say. But I do not believe that there is a member of this 
body who, when the supreme hour comes, will shirk his duty to his 
country — aye, to his God. [Applause.] 

But, Mr. Chairman, the question then will be, What is his duty? 
[Laughter.] 

In his novel, The Fair God, Gen. Lew Wallace, a gallant Federal 
officer, puts into the mouth of Itzell, the Tezcucan warrior, the 
following words, as he addressed Montezuma: 

I intend my words to be respectful, mighty King. A common wisdom 
teachesus to respect the brave man and dread the coward. * * * A throne 
may be laid amid hymns and prayers, but to endure it must rest on the alle- 
giance of love. ~ 

The scene witnessed on this floor a few days ago, when with 
unprecedented unanimity this body voted §50,000,000 as an emer- 
gency fund, was, to my mind, one that touched the American 
heart as no other scene has in the last third of a century; and 
with that fresh in my memory, and in view of the grave and 
solemn responsibility which we must very soon meet, it is, I hope, 
not out of place in me to speak, from a Virginian standpoint, as 
a Southern man, as a former rebel soldier, and to raise my voice 
in commendation of the brave, to ignore the coward, and to mani- 
3220 3 



fest my great joy at the testimony already given by this body 
that the foundation of our great Republic rests on the allegiance 
of love. [Loud applause.] 
Mr. Chairman — 

The drying up a single tear has more 

Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. 

And I am sure there is not a patriot on this floor who would not 
prefer peace to war. 

In the language of Tennyson, we would all prefer to extend our 
dominion of peace — 

Till the war drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle flags were furl'd 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world. 

But, Mr. Chairman, events have been crowded upon us, and I 
fear that we have exhausted all demands on patriotic patience and 
forbearance, on justice and on humanity. It appears to me that 
the time for diplomacy has passed, and that the time for action, 
as grave and as serious as it is, is upon us [applause] , Mr. Chair- 
man. 

War is a cruel monster. It is the desolator and destroyer of 
homes and happiness. Its course is marked by the silent sentinels 
of devastation, standing amid the sighs of widows and the tears 
of orphans. 

The splendor of our nation may dazzle us, but we have only to 
look back upon the ruins of Babylon, Carthage, and Rome to 
show us that war corrupts, enervates, and destroys nations, while 
peace is the great conservator of power, of happiness, of civil and 
religious liberty. 

My voice and my pen have been for peace, and I am still for 
peace, if war can be averted with honor. [Applause.] 

War is a mad game, at which the rich will play to profit by it. 
It enriches the few and bleeds the millions. We have forty-five 
stars, representing forty-five States, each an empire within itself, 
and within our borders there are others asking to be added to 
this glorious constellation and appealing in vain, while some look 
with eagerness to adding the lone star of Cuba. 

We have the greatest and most continuous and most unsevered 
empire of civilized, enlightened, and progressive people on earth, 
and the real development of our resources has hardly yet begun. 

Four-fifths of our arable land are not yet under cultivation and 
a still larger proportion of our mineral wealth is undeveloped, 
and there is no limit to our manufactures except the needs of the 
world. We are untrammeled by the enervating effect of a large 
standing army. 

There is room in one State (Texas) for over 50,000,000 of people, 
and so far from population being then as dense as it is to-day in 
England, there would be sufficient fertile land on which to raise 
all the cotton used in the world and to supply the entire food prod- 
uct necessary for the United States of America. Our streams 
penetrate all sections of our land, laden with our domestic com- 
merce, giving more miles of navigation than the whole of Europe. 
We have more railroads than the balance of the world combined, 
and if projected on a single track would reach from here to the 
moon. 

We of tho South know something of the ravages of war; our 
brethren of the North do not know, for they have never expe- 
rienced it. And if war come, we of the South know that we have 
nothing to gain in a commercial way— we have everything to 
323) 



lose. Every man taken from our producing capacity will lessen 
our material advancement. A generation has passed away since 
our great struggle, and yet we of the South have not yet recov- 
ered from its blighting effects. Our Southland, which to-day 
should be blossoming like a rose, is yet in the midst of suffering. 

No people have ever manifested such manhood and courage in 
adversity, no people have ever had to fight uphill as they have, 
and none have ever merited triumph more; and now, as light be- 
gins to penetrate the long night of our discomfiture, we ought to 
hesitate to go to war as long as peace, with honor, is possible. 
Our martial fervor wiJl be no less emphatic, our patriotic zeal 
will be no less pronounced, if war must come. 

But we will face it as we have always done, yet knowing that 
it means more taxes, more oppression, more pensions, more privi- 
leged classes, more misery and less happiness, more concentration 
of power in the hands of the few — all for what? To preserve un- 
tarnished the honor of our country, to avenge the death of our 
citizens. [Applause.] Mr. Chairman, the destruction of the bat- 
tle ship Maine has 

Deposited upon the silent shore 

Of memory images and precious thoughts 

That shall not die, and can not be destroyed. 

The diplomacy of Spain will now perhaps be in vain. In the 
future (if war must come) it will be your joy to recall, and your 
children and your children's children will be proud to read in the 
history of their country, that you met the issue as Americans. It 
will be the pride of posterity to know that you promoted and pro- 
tected the honor of their great country. It will honor you for the 
step which perhaps you are soon to take. [Applause.] 

Mr. Chairman, I may be pardoned for some reflections and ob- 
servation which may interest the young men who are to fight the 
battles of our country. The proud and awful names of Grant 
and Lee may well be coupled together, having been left to us as 
lights for after times. A third of a century ago, in this very 
month, after a prolonged and bloody civil strife, we of the South 
laid down our arms. To have doubted our courage, endurance, 
prowess, self-abnegation, would have been to belittle these very 
virtues in the gallant soldiers who overcame us. 

Greatness consists in the achievement of great deeds, and who 
will deny that our brothers in blue achieved them? To under- 
estimate them would be to underrate ourselves. A victory won 
without struggle is won without merit; then so much the greater 
honor to the victor who must struggle to accomplish it. No 
greater tribute can be paid to the military renown of the North- 
ern generals than the admission of great military qualities of 
those who surrendered to them. 

To say that Lee, Jackson, and Stewart were great milifcaiw lead- 
ers and had no superiors adds luster to the American name, and 
but sheds greater splendor on the renown of Grant, Sherman, and 
Thomas. To admit that Picketfs charge at Gettysburg was 
equaled by no charge of modern times, but adds glory to the 
brave men that withstood and repulsed it. [Applause.] 

History records no such defense as that of Fort Sumter, which 
only adds fame to the navy that reduced it. [Applause.] 

Miltiades, freedom's best and bravest friend, was the greatest of 
generals, and yet he did not disparage the courage and the fame 
of Datis and his Persian army. Had he done so he would have 

3226 



6 

dimmed his own luster and lessened the splendor of his great 
achievements and deprived his gallant men of the immortal name 
justly earned by them on the field of Marathon over two thou- 
sand years ago. 

If you treat the military renown of Cornwallis and Burgoyne 
with contempt, you sully the glory of Washington. Wellington 
would be shorn of his laurels but for the admitted greatness of 
Napoleon. General Grant might have received the surrender of a 
million Chinese and it would not have added one-thousandth part 
of the luster to his name as did the surrender of Robert E. Lee at 
Appomattox. [Applause.] While St. Helena is a blot on the 
name and fame of Wellington, Appomattox is the brightest gem 
in the crown of U. S. Grant. [Applause.] 

His great achievement was equaled only by his magnanimity. 
He spoke of us before the surrender at Appomattox as we are now 
spoken of by all men. When at Vicksburg, he wrote General 
Pemberton: 

Men who have shown so much endurance and courage as those under 
your command in Vicksburg will challenge the respect of any adversary. 

He knew them as it was expressed by Charles Francis Adams 
when he was minister to England, as related by my friend Mr. 
L acey of Iowa, in an address made last May, at the encampment of 
the Grand Army of the Republic at Des Moines. After the first 
battle of Manassas, Mr. Adams was at a reception when the news 
of the Confederate victory was first announced. A courtier said 
tauntingly to Mr. Adams: "These Confederates fight well, at any 
rats." " Yes," said Mr. Adams, " of course they do, sir; they are 
my countrymen." [Applause.] Gen. U. S. Grant felt and rec- 
ognized this. After the fall of Richmond he declined to enter it 
in triumph or even without pomp and parade, and when asked to 
do so said: 

No, I do not care to go. These people feel too keenly already the injury of 
war, and I do not intend, even by my presence, to seem to them as one who 
finds pleasure in viewing the wreck of their beloved capital and country. 

So, too, when he was at Atlanta and was asked to ride over the 
fields that marked his triumphs, he said: 

I can not bear to go and view these fields where so many heroes on both 
sides have fallen. 

Mr. Speaker, this honored American said, "Let us have peace," 
and my voice would echo his words to-day if there was such a 
thing with honor. The clouds of prejudice necessarily engen- 
dered by our civil strife have now happily given way to the bright 
sunshine of magnanimity and good feeling. 

In view of the impending war, it is, I hope, not asking too much 
that I may 

Wet with unseen tears 
Those graves of memory where sleep . 

those of glorious deeds who fought in 1861-1865, in order that 
those who are to follow on other fields may be stimulated to emu- 
late their example. 

In doing so I shall refer to some records which can not be 
equaled for heroism and matchless courage and may prove a use- 
ful lesson to our young men who to-day are stirred with com- 
mendable martial fervor and laudable patriotic zeal. 

823u 



1 want our young men to study the history of the four years, 
1861 to 1865. Without being invidious, I shall call attention to 
some examples of heroism which may be useful lessons to them 
in this day and generation. History records no such loss as is re- 
corded of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina at Gettysburg of 87 
per cent, and the First Minnesota on the same field of 83 per cent, 
and it is simply one of the many pages emblazoned with American 
valor, audacity, and courage. [Applause.] When we see the 
First Texas holding its position at Antietam with a loss of 82 per 
cent, and the First Massachusetts standing firm under a loss of 
68 per cent, no man can doubt how the sons of these men will 
stand together now. 

When the One hundred and first New York at Manassas, in 
changing its position in good order, sustained a loss of 74 per cent, 
and the Twenty-first Georgia followed the movement with a de- 
pletion of 76 per cent; when at Shiloh the Ninth Illinois was 
immovable under a fire that placed 63 per cent of its men hors de 
combat, while only a few hundred feet in its front stood the Sixth 
Mississippi, sustaining a loss of 70 percent; when the One hundred 
and fifty-first Pennsylvania inflicted a loss of 70S on the Twenty- 
first North Carolina, itself sustaining a loss of 355 of its own men, 
no one can doubt that immortality is written on the name of the 
American soldier. No one will doubt that to-day, joined together 
in the same cause under the same flag, the sons of those who fought 
for as well as of those who fought against the Stars and Stripes in 
1S61-1S65 will be invincible, whether on land or sea, and Spain 
would do well to beware of them. [Loud applause.] 

Mr. Chairman, your son or your grandson will read or perhaps 
has read of when you participated in the bloody charge at Cold 
Harbor; or the heroism you displayed at the bloody angle at 
Spottsylvania; or how you scaled the rocky cliffs of Lookout 
Mountain. And yet on the same page he will read how another 
grandfather (for his mother, perhaps, was the daughter of a rebel 
like myself) was in the forefront of Pickett's charge at Gettys- 
burg, at which the whole world stood spellbound in admiration; 
or perhaps he was one of those who made the name of the Amer- 
ican soldier immortal by his participation in the defense of Fort 
Sumter. Will the grandson think less of his grandfather that 
wore the gray than of the one that wore the blue? [App'ause.] 
Some of you may have daughters who perhaps have married 
the sons of a gallant rebel (and I like the name retel, for I was one 
myself). [Laughter.] 

Should the son of the veteran of the First Minnesota marry the 
daughter of the veteran of the First Texas, or vice versa, their 
children would boast that they had a grandfather in each regiment, 
both renowned for their fighting qualities, the one having lost 83 
per cent at -Gettysburg, and the other 82 per cent at Antietam. 
The grandson of a veteran of the One hundred and first New York 
will ever be proud that his paternal grandfather belonged to that 
splendid regiment, while he would look with equal pride on the 
page of history that recorded the gallant deeds of the Twenty-first 
Georgia, in which, perchance, his maternal grandfather fought, 
each regiment having lost 76 out of every 100 of their men on the 
historic field of Manassas. 

I think it a useful lesson to call attention to these things. Lst 
us look at the losses here tabulated, and then ask if it does not 
make every American heart throb with pride, and whether these 

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015 809 029 6 



figures of themselves do not give assurance of the invincibility of 
the American soldier of to-day. He're are a few instances of losses 
in Confederate and Federal regiments during the war: 

FEDERAL. 



Name of regiment. 



Battle. 



Loss. 



First Minnesota..- 

One hundred and forty-first Pennsylvania. 

Onehundred. and first New York 

Twenty-fifth Massachusetts 

Thirty-sixth Wisconsin 

Eighth Vermont 

Twenty -fourth Michigan 

Fifth New Hampshire 



Getty shurg 

do 

Manassas 

Cold Harbor 

Bethesda Church 

Cedar Creek 

Gettysburg 

Fredericksburg 



Per cent. 
83 
76 

74 
70 



CONFEDERATE. 



Name of regiment. 


Battle. 


Loss. 






Per cent. 
87 




Manassas 


76 




73 




Shiioh .- 


71 






68 


Palmetto Sharpshooters, South Carolina 


Glendale 

Chickamauga 


63 
65 




83 









Posterity will be gladdened when they read that the sons of 
such heroes joined together to sustain the honor and dignity of 
their great nation. And to-day as we look at the flag of our com- 
mon country, and as we recognize that the honor of the nation is 
threatened, the sons of the boys who wore the blue and those of 
the boys who wore the gray will salute it and join us as we say 
to that flag, in the language of Ruth: 

Whither thou goest we will go; where thou lodgest we will lodge; thy 
people shall be our people, and thy God shall be our God. Where thou diest 
we will die and there will we be buried. 

[Long and continued applause.] 
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